Chapter 2 - Zeta
Part 1 : The Awakening Marks Sigma the memplex created by the Rufina race, tried to mix the gene of Rufina Race and Humina Race, in order to create a Transcendental Being who would have enough wisdom to trace the origin of Ristaccia. After many attempts of genetic modifications, a perfect Transcendental Being, Lien, was born. After a few years, Lien had grown up. Wanting to know whether he was wise enough, Sigma threw her 7 hardest puzzles to Lien. He had passed Sigma's test and proved himself to be talented. Right after Lien solved the seventh puzzle, he felt like something burst in his head. With all hairs standing up and eyes whirling quickly,he had the feeling that something sinking through every pores of his body. It was as if he was having a nightmare. The next second, his body fell into many pieces of numbers flying in the space.Before long,the numbers gathered up, and formed a long number sequence. Then,the sequence began to screw together, made up a spinning double helix tower. Several seconds later, the tower fell into many pieces of many colorful bits, and then gathered up again, become a mosaic screen. The screen began to display many different kinds of animals and plants. It seemed to be a huge auto-paging illustrated dictionary of living creatures. Suddenly,after a big bang, a flood of sound wave swallowed everything. When Lien regained his consciousness, he found that he was floating in an ocean of stars. The sun was in his hand,and the planets were spinning around him. After a while, the stars also began to fell into many pieces of numbers, and then, disappeared. Space became completely dark. But,if look carefully, there were a lot of dust floating in space irregularly. Then, one piece of dust began to shine out. After that, all the dusts started their regular motion. Finally,the dark space was fulfilled with light. Lien closed his eyes, took a deep breath. "Now, I know...I know everything about it. I feel quite refreshed." When Lien opened his eyes, he saw a whited dressed goddess appeared from the light. "My name is Sigma. I have waited for a long long time... for someone who could solve all my seven puzzles. Now, the time has finally come. Now, listen to me carefully. After the Ristaccia War, the surviving Rufinas had decided to abandon their physical bodies to seek eternal existence. They collected all the information about them, and integrated the information altogether. This way, I was created. My ultimate duty is to trace the origin of Ristaccia, which has the greatest power on this planet. That's the last wish of the Rufina Race." After a short introduction, Sigma began to tell Lien all the truth. "After my deep sleep of hundreds of years, I found that the world is now prospering again. The Humina Race has done well under the guide of Ristaccia. So, I chose a few outstanding Huminas, carved 'the mark of intelligence' onto their genes step by step. Then, after hundreds of years, a perfect transdental being was firstly born in this genealogy. That is you, Lien. You got both the most excellent genes from Humina Race and Rufina Race, and had them merged together very well. That's why you have the transcendental intelligence to solve my seven hardest puzzles. Now, you are the only one who can find out the truth about Ristaccia. Go to the Ristaccia Ruins, Lien. This mission has been passed down from your ancestors and my creators for hundred of years. Now, it's in your hand." Standing in front of the mysterious goddess, Lien never showed any fluster or anxiousness, even after he was told something like that. He kept a cool face, appeared completely unmoved. It seemed that he was the one who wanted to meet the goddess on his own initiative. Maybe that was because all of the Rufina gene marks in his body had all awakened at one time. "So, I'm a transcendental being who had inherited the genes of the ancient race "Rufina", and the goddess Sigma attempted to modify my ancestor's genes, creating a 'genealogy of transcendental beings', in order to created a transcendental being like me." Lien was thinking silently. "If I hadn't come here, maybe I would have never understood any of this. But now, I can feel that Ristaccia is influencing the whole planet. I surely can understand it." Then, he opened his mouth with a calm voice. "My beautiful goddess, thanks to you, I finally understand why I was a mathematics maniac all life long from childhood. It was almost instinctive. And it was all for today, all for now, right? I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. After seeing your bristling hair, I could understand how bored you felt in all these years. It's really a pain to live through boring days..." Unsuspectful of the danger ahead, Lien began his prideful hike to the Ristaccia Ruins, nearby to the east. Part 2 : The Transcendental Intelligence and Might "Now, here is one me who has to obey the rules of nature, and here is another me who transcended all the rules, overlooking the whole world like a bird flying freely." Lien touched himself, in order to confirm his sense of touch and his existence. "The Goddess Sigma has already entrusted the 'Golden Key' to me and taught me the occult science named "Evolution", so all I'm left to do is to uncover the mystery of Ristaccia, the mysterious eight pieces of ruby, which existence mankind has never found the meaning of. That is the unfulfilled wish of the seven vanished races, and also my destiny as a transcendental being." Lien was standing in front of a tough looking large gate. It seemed that no one could open it with physical methods. Now, he had acquired a special ability after his evolution. He closed his eyes, described the transcendence theory in his brain. After doing that, when he opened his eyes, the large gate soon disappeared in his sight. All he could see was a long sequence of numbers. He closed his eyes again, and solved the number sequence puzzle in his brain within one minute. When he opened his eyes again, the large gate was already open, and not one noise had been made. It seemed that the gate was not automatically opened, but rather that it was never closed in the first place. The Ristaccia Ruins - they were also called "Ruins of the Skyship". Having the large gate opened, Lien entered the ruins. After crossing a long corridor, Lien saw long stairs leading down to underground. Getting down the stairs, he eventually came to a large chamber. The chamber was nearly empty. The only thing in it was a strange slab lying at its center, twinkling with soft light. The slab did not seem to be made out of stone or metal, but some kind of unknown, beautiful material. Lien came closer to the slab with caution. He saw that there were something written on the top of it. It seemed to be some kind of alphabet, but even the encyclopaedic Lien had never seen this kind of alphabet anywhere before. Obviously, these words didn't belong to this world. However, Lien could read the words naturally. He felt very strange from being able to. The words said: "A.D.1906. Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann killed himself at Duino." Though Lien could read the words, though Lien had his new ability awakened by the ancient artifacts, he was not understanding the message's meaning at all. "What is this? What does this mean? Did this come from another world?" Lien put his hand on the top of the slab. The slap made a sound, and then, the old words soon shifted to some new words. Lien tried to read them. The words said: "I know that it can't be helped. Some time or other, everything would lose their meaning of existence. It will be all in vain. After knowing that, you still hold out some hope? Foolishness. So, I decided to say "farewell" to this hollow world. (A.D.2042, the result of analyzing Boltzmann's memories, done by D.A.L.)" Lien could not understand it either. He closed his eyes, tried to use his special ability again. But this time, a extremely complicated geometry puzzle appeared in front of him. The overlapping multiple geometries seemed overly challenging, and even he really did not know where to start. Lien touched the slab again. The words were renewed for the second time. The words said: "We were trapped in a dead end. It looks like the great maze won't easily accept us. When did I realize that? Well, I had already realized it, long long ago. -Joah's Memo 4-" Suddenly,Lien felt that a ringing in his ears. "Joah... I don't think this is the first time I've heard this name. It sounds so familiar to me..." At that time, he heard some strange noise. "Who's... there?" No one replied to him. His voice echoed in the big empty chamber. But he really did see someone's dark silhouette at the entrance to the chamber. He walked back to the entrance to see whether there was someone there. In the entrance stood a black haired, beautiful woman in eastern ethnic costume. She had a blank, expressionless face. But Lien could feel a strong will from her eyes. "How could you get here? There is no way for you to get that gate open... wait,that costume, you must come from Azuelgatt..." Lien was suddenly struck dumb after noticing the woman's sword. "That is... a piece of Ristaccia!?" The woman kept her expressionless face and threw her sharp eyes to Lien's face. Obviously, she was murderous and dangerous. She opened her mouth peacefully. "My name is Shamshir. My duty is to find the transcendental beings and hunt them down. I'm convinced that transcendental beings will always cause great disasters. Now, I can feel your extraordinary intelligence, so you're going to die. Your outstanding intelligence will forever live in my memories." At that time, Lien saw a vortex of primal sequences whirling in front of him, and at the center of the vortex was that woman, Shamshir, who raised her sword up, still without any expression. Lien's consciousness was fading away. But right at that time, he could clearly feel someone else's consciousness in the vortex of sequences. "Joah...is that..you...?" Media Zeta Category:chapters